Learning Languages and the Language of Learning

Abstract

THIS ISSUE OF PERSPECTIVES CONTINUES discussion of programmatic actions that college foreign language (FL) programs might take in response to societal and professional changes. In MLJ 90, 2 the Perspectives contributions focused on the provocative question of whether communicative competence, including its extensions into the proficiency and the Standards movements in the United States, is still the most favorable conceptual framework for collegiate FL study. Although the essays provided extensive arguments for interrogating the goals and results of communicative teaching, they also showed a keen awareness that their proposals must be realizable and realized in terms of learning outcomes.This issue of Perspectives is devoted to considering what these realizations might look like in FL departments. Entitled The Outcomes of Collegiate FL Programs: Specifications, Assessment, Evaluation, it frames the tasks that lie ahead for departments through a second set of provocative questions: No matter how FL departments define themselves, how do they specify their educational goals in terms of the learning outcomes for their learners? How can departments know if their students attain these outcomes, and to what extent? How can they come to understand their own roles in bringing about these outcomes, or, perhaps, not being able to bring them about to their complete satisfaction? Finally, how would the answers to the preceding question affect the future conduct of the participants in an educational communityfaculty, students, and administrators?These questions obviously deal with assessment. But if such foundational considerations about a program's work toward student learning outcomes are classed under the rubric of assessment, then assessment takes on a central role as FL programs chart their future. In such a case, assessment would not be a conceptual add-on after visions, curricula, and pedagogies have been spelled out. It would also no longer be relegatedThe Modern Language Journal 90 (2006)

Redesigning an Introductory Language Curriculum: A Backward Design Approach

“…That is, assessment evidence can inform the determination of instructional practices or adjustment of learning objectives. This bidirectionality is akin to the assessment loop discussed in program evaluation research, which includes defining goals, gathering evidence, interpreting results, and using those results to improve programs and student learning (Leskes & Wright, 2005;Wright, 2006).…”